An assistant coach and player at Kenilworth Rugby Club has been named as the new Head Coach for the Warwickshire Women's Rugby squad this week.

Becci Lewis has been assistant coach for the women's team at Kenilworth for two years now, having originally come across as a player four years ago from Camp Hill.

Having been involved in the sport for her entire adult life Becci has said she is thrilled to now be taking on her first head coach position.

"It was brilliant," says Becci "I have been playing rugby now for over 20 years, I first started coaching actually very young when I was playing for the West Midlands, and I have been player-coaching all the way through, so to get a role that is firmly a head coach position, and not from a player-coaching perspective is really exciting.

"Kenilworth as a club has been a massive help to facilitate this for me, such great support in the background, so I would really like to thank them."

Becci first started playing rugby whilst at secondary school when some of her friends contacted a local women's team asking about the possibility of taster sessions. Having been an avid netball player growing up Becci was convince to give rugby a go, and then never looked back.

Playing across the front row, but predominantly as a hooker, she was selected to play for the West Midlands under 16s in her first year, before going on to play youth rugby for Worcester.

She then spent a year living in Bath at an England camp where she trained under Gary Street who coached the England Women's team to World Cup glory in 2014.

Becci actually successfully applied for the assistant coaching role at Warwickshire last year, however due to the coronavirus pandemic she was unable to make the most of the position. Despite this, when a vacancy came for the top job her application was once again successful.

Now as head coach in Warwickshire, Becci will be responsible for helping player development across the county, watching and selecting the best players in the region to compete against other counties at the end of each season.

"It is really exciting times as well to be involved in women's rugby, there is a lot of talent in Warwickshire, its just now a case of getting them inspired and getting them into playing for the county.

"We will be pursuing a growth strategy over the next three years to move onwards and upwards.

"I'm just really looking forward to getting the county stuff going, we will be actively looking for a new assistant coach soon."

After such a long time out however, Becci is just glad to have sport back up and running again.

"We had our first training session back and the excitement was palpable for the players and the coaches. It is not just about running around with the ball in your hands, but it is the being with other people, with the team again.

"We thought we would be a little rusty, but it was a cracking session."

Kenilworth women's rugby club train on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7pm, if anyone is interested in giving rugby a try they can contact Kenilworth Women's Rugby on Facebook, or Instagram, or email them directly at: [email protected].